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Objective: Data on disability in refugees is lacking, hindering effectiveness of humanitarian response. We investigated disability condition in refugees, identifying possible mechanisms that affect their health., Methods: The Washington Group Short Set - Enhanced was used to identify people at risk experiencing disability. Data on migration routes were collected and the relationship with functioning limitations was explored., Results: 483 refugees (58.18% males - 41.82% female) were interviewed. 23.8% were found to have a disability, with a higher risk for those who travelled along the central Mediterranean route OR (95% CI) 2.08 (1.33-3.24). Affect domain represented the main weight for disability (28.16%), followed by mobility limitation (8.28%). People who travelled across the central Mediterranean route were found to have a high risk of developing anxiety problems OR (95% CI) 2.19 (1.33-3.6), while people who crossed the Balkan route had a higher risk of mobility limitation OR (95% CI) 3.03 (1.23-7.44)., Conclusion: This study provides the first available data on disability among refugees in Italy, revealing a high prevalence of disability and a significant association with migration routes. These findings underscore the urgent need for targeted health and rehabilitation interventions to address the specific vulnerabilities of this population., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they do not have any conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2025 Tofani, Marceca, Valente, Galeoto, Ben Zina, Salhi, Elmadmad, Tak Tak, Gosling, Mishra, Gazzaniga, Cilione and Iorio.)

Introduction: Limited evidence exists on migrants with disability. A comprehensive assessment is mandatory required to organize specific services within the community and reception centers. The present study explores needs of refugees and asylum seeker within a community-based inclusive development framework., Methods: To interview migrants, in this study we used the Community-Based Rehabilitation Indicators (CBR-Is) developed by the World Health Organization., Results: The sample consisted of 41 people with disability and 59 without disability. Sample was homogeneous for gender and age. Our findings reveal how migrants with disability experienced poor outcomes in each domain of CBR-Is, namely health, education, livelihood, social end empowerment., Conclusion: Differences between migrants with and without disabilities have some distinctive features. However, both groups are influenced by the social determinants of health: in addition to health issues, challenges in social life, livelihood and empowerment also clearly emerge. Different stakeholders are invited to promote inclusive communities, facilitating access to social and health services.

Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) is a multi-sectorial community strategy for guaranteeing that people with disabilities enjoy the same rights and opportunities as all other community members. CBR is organized in a five-component matrix-namely, health, education, social, livelihood, and empowerment. To measure the effectiveness of CBR, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed standardized indicators. The objective of the present study is to translate and validate the CBR indicators (CBR-Is), providing preliminary evidence of their use for disability in Italy. After obtaining permission from the WHO, the CBR-Is followed a process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation according to international guidelines. An examination of internal consistency and reliability was than performed. The intra-rater reliability was estimated using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient with a 95% confidence interval. In order to measures the differences between people with and without disabilities, an independent sample t -test was used for quantitative indicators. The Italian version of the CBR-Is (IT-CBR-Is) was administered to 234 people. The internal consistency showed a good value, with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.862, and the intra-rater reliability analysis showed solid values for each domain (range: 0.723-0.882). Statistically significant differences between people with and without disabilities were found for each domain of the CBR matrix-namely, health, social, education, livelihood, and empowerment. The IT-CBR-Is are consistent and reliable measures when used to investigate disability in a community-based inclusive development perspective. National stakeholders can now have specific indicators to implement services and actions for people with disabilities.

Purpose: Physical activity is essential for health and well-being. People with physical disability often experience barriers in performing sports due to the lack of appropriate assistive technologies. The present research aimed to investigate athletes with disability satisfaction when using sports wheelchairs and to explore clinometric properties of the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with Assistive Technology (QUEST)., Materials and Methods: One hundred and twenty-eight athletes were involved in the present study. Data on sport discipline and wheelchair provision were collected with qualitative approach. Internal consistency and reliability of QUEST were respectively analyzed with Cronbach's Alpha and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient. Validity was investigated with the correlation of the Wheelchair Use Confidence Scale for Manual users., Results: Results revealed good internal consistency (.858) and moderate inter-rater reliability for service subscale (.664) and for the total score (.675), while for device subscale (.802) reliability was high. Validity revealed moderate correlation (.300) with a p < 0.05. Qualitative analysis highlighted economic barriers as primary social determinant who affect participation in sport activities., Conclusions: The present study confirms preliminary evidence of the QUEST for athletes with disability. The research group also recommends an international effort to promote a comprehensive evaluation of sports wheelchair involving rehabilitation professionals, sport technicians and people with disability.Implications for rehabilitationEconomic factors linked to the purchase of a wheelchair seem being the main barrier for practising sportThe Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with Assistive Technology is a useful tool to measure athletes' satisfaction using a wheelchairRehabilitation professionals and sport technicians should collaborate together with people with disability in determining how choose appropriate sport wheelchairs.

Women with disabilities feel the desire for motherhood as much as women without special clinical needs. Their fertility is often not impacted by disability and they can have children. However, several issues must be considered, depending on the physical, mental or developmental disability. Women with a physical disability often experience higher risks of caesarean section, preterm birth, growth restriction and low birth weight when compared to controls. Women with intellectual or developmental disabilities are often young, unmarried, unemployed and have limited access to care. They often struggle following instructions or recognizing the conditions that require medical help. They are more likely to experience preeclampsia, diabetes, venous thromboembolism, cesarean delivery, infant low birth weight, preterm birth, neonatal intensive care unit admission, and perinatal death. Moreover, an association between psychiatric morbidity and alcohol abuse was proved by several pieces of evidence and it can cause serious damage to fetus and newborn causing Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. Fetus and the newborn of disabled mothers are exposed to specific risks depending on the mother's conditions: the main risk fetuses are exposed to during pregnancy is exposure to drugs and therapies which cannot be suspended and whose effects over pregnancy are not known. Moreover, some conditions causing maternal disability could elevate the risk for the baby to be similarly affected. It is important that both women and men with disabilities could be provided with accurate, accessible, and understandable information about sexual health and options regarding contraception and reproduction. It's important for women with disabilities to have the chance to discuss sexual matters, pregnancy desires and concerns with healthcare providers so they can provide appropriate screenings, contraceptive services, preconception, and prenatal care. Among healthcare providers, midwives are the frontline healthcare professionals who have the role, the possibility and the education to perform influential counseling on women about lifestyles and reproductive health.

The study aimed to validate an Italian translation of the Craig Hospital Inventory of Environmental Factors (CHIEF) environmental assessment tool. The CHIEF scale was administered throughout Italy to 506 individuals who did not present with serious and/or disabling diseases. The results show an excellent interrelation between CHIEF scale items and the subscales. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrates that following repeated administration to the same participants, the instrument maintains excellent stability of each subscale for the frequency, magnitude, and impact of the barriers. This study demonstrates that the Italian version of the CHIEF scale is reliable for measuring environmental barriers. The findings show that the scale is suitable for the clinical and research fields to broaden our knowledge about this relevant yet poorly studied field.

Objective: The aims of this study are the translation, cultural adaptation, and validation of the Community Integration Questionnaire-Revised (CIQ-R) in Italian in a group of individuals with no clinical evidence of disability., Methods: The test's internal consistency and validity were assessed by following international guidelines. The test's internal consistency was examined using Cronbach's alpha ( α ) coefficient. Pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated to assess the test's concurrent validity compared with the Short Form-12 (SF-12) health survey., Results: The CIQ-R was administrated to 400 people with no clinical evidence of disease, impairment, or disability, aged between 18 and 64. Cronbach's α reported a value of 0.82 in the home integration subscale. The test also showed a good test-retest reliability, with an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient of 0.78, and a significant correlation between the total score of the CIQ-R and the Physical Component Summary (PCS) of the SF-12 ( r = 0.118), between the "social integration" subscale's score and PCS12 ( r = 0.121) and between the "Electronic Social Networking integration" subscale's score and PCS12 ( r = 0.184), with p < 0.05., Conclusion: This is the first study to report the results of the translation and validation of the CIQ-R in Italian. The CIQ-R is an important tool for Italian professionals and can be useful in both clinical practice and research for measuring the level of community integration among the healthy population., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Melissa Ioncoli et al.)

The importance of adaptive seating system on body structure and function is widely accepted, but its impact on psychosocial aspects needs more consideration by health professionals. This article describes the Italian validation of the Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Device Scale (IT-PIADS) for non-ambulant people with neuromotor disorders.Once agreement has been given by the original authors, the scale was translated and adapted to the Italian culture. The IT-PIADS was administered to different wheelchairs users with heterogeneous diagnosis. The internal consistency and test-retest reliability were examined. Its concurrent validity was evaluated with the Italian version of the WheelCon-M-SF.The IT-PIADS was administered to 87 subjects. Cronbach's α was 0.92 ( p  < 0.05), and the test-retest reliability (ICC) for competence, adaptability and self-esteem subscales were 0.96, 0.90, 0.93, respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient of the IT-PIADS with the WheelCon-M-I-SF scores showed significant data for competence and adaptability subscales.Psychosocial perception on assistive devices can be reliably measure. The IT-PIADS showed good psychometric properties and it is possible to confirm its validity for clinical and research purposes. Nevertheless, before using this measure with greater confidence, further psychometric properties tests of the IT-PIADS are recommended.

Objective: We developed an Italian version of the Wheelchair Use Confidence Scale for Manual Users-Short Form (WheelCon-M-I-short form) and examined its reliability and validity., Methods: The original scale was translated from English to Italian using the "Translation and Cultural Adaptation of Patient Reported Outcomes Measures-Principles of Good Practice" guidelines. The WheelCon-M-I-short form was administered to experienced manual wheelchair users who had a variety of diagnoses. Its internal consistency and test-retest reliability were examined. Its concurrent validity was evaluated using Pearson correlation coefficients with the Italian version of the Wheelchair Outcome Measure (WhOM-I) and the Italian version of the Barthel index (BI)., Results: The WheelCon-M-I-short form was administered to 31 subjects. The mean ± SD of the WheelCon-M-I-short form score was 7.5 ± 1.9. All WheelCon-M-I-short form items were either identical or similar in meaning to the WheelCon-M-short form items. Cronbach's α for the WheelCon-M-I-short form was 0.95 (p < 0.01), and the test-retest reliability (ICC) was 0.978 (p < 0.01). The Pearson correlation coefficient of the WheelCon-M-I-short form scores with the WhOM-I scores was 0.7618 (p < 0.01). The Pearson correlation coefficient of the WheelCon-M-I-short form scores with the Italian BI scores was 0.638 (p < 0.01)., Conclusions: The WheelCon-M-I-short form was found to be reliable and a valid outcome measure for assessing manual wheelchair confidence in the Italian population. Implication for Rehabilitation The WheelCon-M-I-short form is a valid outcome measure available for assessing wheelchair confidence, according to Bandura's social cognitive theory, self-efficacy is a better predictor of future behavior than skill itself. Translation of the WheelCon-M-short form into the WheelCon-M-I-short form provides a new tool for Italian professionals. Clinicians now have a method to measure this invisible barrier to wheelchair use, and they will be able to make informed decisions when prescribing the use of manual wheelchairs and when training clients in their use. The WheelCon-M-I-short form also provides researchers with a tool in an important and relevant area of study for future research.